As peak season fast approaches, the pressure on retailers to provide seamless, customer-friendly service intensifies. With increased consumer demand around major events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, meeting customer expectations is crucial for driving sales and building loyalty.
Nearly 60% of Australians wait to make purchases during these significant shopping events, making it more important than ever for businesses to deliver during peak season, when it matters most. To help retailers navigate this high-pressure time, here are some key strategies to ensure peak season success.
Leverage technology
With unit economics top of mind for many retailers, it’s critical they understand how to drive greater ROI from their current investments ahead of, and during, peak season. Then, based on peak-season learnings, retailers can optimise their approach for the medium- and long-term. Predictive analytics, for example, can help retailers forecast demand more accurately.
This enables them to prioritise high-demand products, reducing the likelihood of stockouts and missed sales opportunities. Additionally, by analysing historical sales data and customer behaviour, retailers can fine-tune their marketing efforts, creating targeted campaigns that resonate with their audience.
Anticipating customer needs through data analysis positions retailers to handle peak season demand with precision. Instead of scrambling to keep up, they can approach the rush with confidence, knowing they have the right products in stock and the right strategies in place to keep customers happy.
Embrace a fast and flexible delivery strategy
One of the biggest risks retailers face during peak season is putting all their eggs in one basket when it comes to delivery. Reliance on a single carrier can expose retailers to risks such as capacity constraints or external disruptions such as capacity constraints, external disruptions or staff shortages.
By tapping into flexible fleets, retailers can distribute their delivery needs across multiple carriers, ensuring they have the delivery capacity to meet customer expectations, even in the face of unforeseen challenges. In addition, fast delivery – such as same day and on-demand – is also critical, especially to maximise the last-minute pre-Christmas rush.
Flexible fleets give retailers the ability to scale their delivery operations as needed. This is particularly important during high-demand periods like Black Friday when order volumes can skyrocket. Our State of Shipping report revealed that 60% of retailers believe that delivery cost, speed and choice have the highest impact on checkout conversion.
By tapping into an agnostic network of carriers and diversifying their delivery options, retailers can ensure they have enough capacity to meet customer expectations, even if one carrier is overburdened or faces issues.
The agility of flexible networks allows retailers to ramp up quickly when demand surges and scale back during quieter periods, avoiding the costs and commitments of long-term delivery contracts. Not only does this help maintain efficiency, but it also accelerates delivery times.
During peak season, customers expect certainty and speed – nearly 50% of shoppers say they wouldn’t return to a brand after a poor delivery experience, and retailers who prioritise flexibility in their logistics can deliver just that—boosting customer satisfaction and, ultimately, loyalty.
Don’t under-promise on delivery times
When it comes to delivery, nothing is more important than reliability. In recent years, many retailers have over-extended their delivery estimates as a safety measure, so they don’t fall short of rising consumer expectations. For instance, standard shipping estimates have increased from an average of two days in 2018 to 5.6 days today.
Despite this, actual delivery times have decreased, with the average standard delivery via Shippit taking just 2.2 days. The problem with setting overly conservative delivery estimates is that it can discourage customers from completing their purchases. If shoppers believe their order will take too long to arrive, they may abandon their carts and look for faster alternatives.
To avoid this, retailers need to strike the right balance by using real-time data to provide accurate delivery estimates. This ensures that customer expectations are met without deterring them with overly cautious timeframes.
Prepare for peak season and beyond
The ability to deliver quickly and reliably has always been a key differentiator for retailers, but during peak season – when it matters most – it takes on even greater significance. By leveraging predictive analytics, adopting flexible delivery networks, and using real-time data to provide accurate shipping estimates, retailers can not only meet heightened customer expectations but also enhance the overall shopping experience.
There’s growing optimism that this year will be an inflection point for the local retail sector, but only the brands that focus on the post-purchase experience—by implementing flexible fleets, refining delivery estimates, and leveraging data analytics—will be best positioned to seize the opportunity. With more orders comes more data, and these strategies will also serve retailers well throughout the rest of the year—and will only improve as peak season ends and they have even more insights to refine their approach.
In the end, retailers that prioritise the post-purchase experience – and specifically flexibility, data-driven decision-making, and customer satisfaction – will be better equipped to turn peak season shoppers into loyal, long-term customers. As customer expectations continue to evolve, those who deliver seamless, reliable service will stand out from the competition and thrive not just during peak season, but throughout the entire year.
Rob Hango-Zada is co-founder and co-CEO of Shippit.